ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The pitch floated right into Mike Trout's wheelhouse, an 80-mph changeup that barely grazed the bottom of the zone. Trout unleashed a mighty swing on the ball and sent it soaring 428 feet to center field.
The two-run homer off Seattle Mariners starter Marco Gonzales, who had kept Trout off the bases until that pitch, allowed the Angels to tie Friday night's game at Angel Stadium in the eighth inning.
But in an eventual 5-3 loss, the Angels' fifth in a row, the lasting image of a failed comeback was of Cody Allen. Before the Angels closer could get an out, Tim Beckham and Omar Narvaez hit back-to-back solo homers in the ninth inning. For the second night in a row, Allen entered a tied game in the ninth and allowed the Mariners to take the lead.
Angels starter Felix Pena was let off the hook. He threw five innings for the first time this season and even made it through the Mariners lineup rather efficiently. He threw only 39 of his 71 pitches for strikes, but he did a formidable job commanding his pitches. He threw his slider 32 times and got four swinging strikes and six called strikes with it. He gave up two hits _ both home runs _ and two walks.
Yet with the Angels trailing 3-1 after five innings, manager Brad Ausmus chose to go to his bullpen instead of allowing his starter to go deeper into the game. Ausmus rarely enjoys the luxury of long outings by his starters, and the question has been asked of Ausmus often: How can you get more innings out of your starting pitching?
Each time, Ausmus has said it's a problem he's trying to work through. On Friday afternoon, he offered a different perspective.
"The games have been really close and kind of that third time through the lineup, if we think that we got an option with the strong 'pen down there that we have ... we're going to do it," he said. "So there have been times where I've gone out there and after 41/3, 42/3 (innings) and made a change because we're trying to win games. We're going to go with our strengths."
That's by design. General manager Billy Eppler set out during the offseason to build a bullpen full of what he described as high-octane arms _ pitchers who could throw hard and miss bats. Although they've been overworked, Eppler's plan mostly has worked to his favor. He's got pitchers _ Ty Buttrey, Luis Garcia and Hansel Robles _ who can throw harder than 95 mph. He's also got a collection of others _ Buttrey, Robles, Alle, Noe Ramirez and Cam Bedrosian _ who have struck out more than 25% of the batters they've faced.
The results gave Ausmus confidence to make a move like he did Friday night, when he summoned Buttrey from the bullpen in the sixth inning so he could keep the game close enough for his hitters to mount a comeback.
Buttrey allowed a walk and a ground-rule double after retiring two batters, but struck out Beckham whiffing at an 85-mph slider. Left-hander Dillon Peters worked around two baserunners in a scoreless seventh. Robles allowed a walk in a scoreless eighth. But Allen's outing went sideways.
Gonzales, who leads all of baseball in innings pitched (38), kept Angels hitters off balance for most of the game. He received 23 strike calls, induced eight swings-and-misses and struck out six batters through seven innings.
But when he went out for the eighth, Gonzales did not continue his tyranny.
The Angels might have had more to show for their eighth-inning rally if Justin Bour hadn't assumed he was out when he popped a ball over the infield with Brian Goodwin attempting to steal second base. Goodwin scurried back to first as Ryon Healy awaited the ball in his glove. But the ball dropped. Healy turned an inning-ending double play as Bour, who never ran to first, stood watching from the home dugout side of home plate.
The inning ended there. Allen blew the tie minutes later. Ausmus removed him from the game without allowing him to record an out in the ninth.
